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Captain Raphael Semmes

Scourge of the Seas CSS Alabama Known to the U.S. for 21 months as the "Scourge of the Seas," the CSS Alabama cruised the four corners of the globe while creating havoc for U.S. merchant shipping and never once coming to a Confederate port.

No ship in the Confederate Navy was more hated and feared than the CSS Alabama. From 1862 through early 1864, it captured 65 Union merchant ships, most of which it burned. Ironically, its crew was primarily Dutch, English, Welsh, Irish, French, Italian and Spanish, and it never entered a single Southern port from the time it was built in England, until it perished in battle a few miles off the coast of France.

Not only did the Alabama seek out its victims in the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, but it pursued them as far away as the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. As the Union did not view the Confederacy as a sovereign nation, it regarded the Alabama as a privateer. Since that practice had been outlawed by the Declaration of Paris in 1856, its mission as a merchant raider was internationally somewhat controversial. Thus, the Northern press often referred to the "privateer" or "pirate ship" Alabama. It was also known as the "Ghost Ship", for its knack of evading the Union warships sent out to destroy it.

As the South had little shipbuilding capability, the Alabama was built in Birkenhead, England by the Laird shipbuilding firm. Great pains were taken during its construction to conceal its purpose, as it was against international law for a neutral power to build a warship for a warring party. Therefore, no armaments were installed, and it was referred to as "L90", the 90th ship built by the Lairds. When the finished ship was launched on 29 July 1862, it was manned by a civilian crew.

From its launch site on the Mersey opposite Liverpool, the new ship slipped away to the Portuguese Azores, where it rendezvoused with Confederate naval personnel under the command of Captain Raphael Semmes. There, he supervised the refitting of the ship with armaments and filled the coal bins for the 300 horse power steam engine which drove her twin screw propellers. With both steam and sail, the graceful wooden vessel was capable of 13 knots. She was 234 feet long and 32 feet wide, with eight guns.

At the time Raphael Semmes took command of the Alabama, he was 53 years old. Originally from Maryland, his family had been among its earliest Catholic colonists. Later, he resettled in Alabama where he became a lawyer and served in the US Navy during the Mexican War.

At the time of the Civil War, one's loyalty was first to his state and second to his nation. Therefore, when Alabama seceded from the Union, Semmes resigned his Navy commission. Shortly after, he was appointed a commander in the Confederate Navy. Remarkably, it was a navy that at the outset of the war possessed not a single warship. With the blessings of the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Semmes set about converting a steamer, the Habana, formerly used for runs between New Orleans and Havana, to the first confederate ship of war, a merchant raider.

After completing the conversion, Semmes successfully ran the Union blockade of the Mississippi in his makeshift craft now called the Sumter. On 3 July 1861, he surprised the Golden Rocket out of Maine seeking a cargo of sugar off the southwest coast of Cuba. When he lit up the night sky with the flames of the burning ship, the North reacted in shock and outrage. Though there were no casualties, Northern newspapers cried out for Semmes to be hanged for this "inhuman" act of "piracy". Soon, several Union ships set out after the Sumter, but throughout the rest of 1861 and into January 1862, she skillfully eluded them, while she captured or destroyed 17 additional merchant ships. Meanwhile, insurance rates for merchant vessels soared. However, in February, pushed beyond its stopgap capability for seven months, Sumter's luck ran out across the Atlantic in the neutral port of Gibraltar when it was blockaded by the Union warships, Tuscarora, Ino and Kearsarge.

Aboard a British packet ship on 14 April 1862, Semmes departed Gibraltar for Southampton and London. About four months later, he assumed the command of the warship Alabama, capable of terrorizing Union shipping on a far greater scale than the converted Sumter. Indeed, through the first few months of 1862, the Alabama followed the shipping lanes of seasonal commerce and ran amok among Union merchant vessels. (Later, Semmes acknowledged that he gleaned precious intelligence of the whereabouts and missions of the Federal gunboats from reports in the New York Herald.)

The whaling fleet of New England in the Azores soon found itself under attack. Between 5 and 18 September 1862, the Alabama burned nine whalers and another ship. Having inflicted considerable damage on the whaling fleet, in October the raider turned its attention to the grain ships. Off the banks of Newfoundland, the Alabama captured six of them. It also seized five more ships that month. Altogether, Semmes ransomed three ships and burned eight.

As word of the Alabama's presence circulated among the New York shipping offices, the grain merchants turned to lesser-used sea lanes. Semmes also sensed that it was too dangerous to remain near the Union coast, so he turned south for the West Indies.

In January 1863, off the coast of Galveston, the Alabama engaged in the first of only two battles with a federal warship. At close quar- ters, at night, it pumped six broadsides into the Hatteras and sent it to the bottom. Nonetheless, it rescued all survivors.

Following the Alabama's destructive rampage among the grain ships, two federal gunboats set out in pursuit. One, the Vanderbilt, a huge, converted passenger ship, pursued the Alabama to the West Indies, off the coast of Brazil, and completely across the Atlantic to South Africa. The second ship was the Wyoming. Since the Alabama did not find the expected East India merchant ships along the Cape route, it sailed to the straits of Java and Sumatra, shadowed by the Wyoming.

At the island of Krakatoa, destined some 20 years later to explode with unparalleled ferocity, the federal warship set up a vigil for its enemy. But Semmes, with intelligence from British captains, avoided the Wyoming. That November, he captured and burned three ships — one loaded with hemp and another so beautiful that it was "almost a desecration to destroy so perfect a specimen".

Sailing to Singapore that December and entering its harbor for needed coal, Semmes found 22 Union merchant ships moored, some, he heard, for three months or more. He also learned of a smaller number of ships taking refuge in the harbors of Canton, Shanghai, Bangkok and the Philippines. The raiding activities of the Alabama and sister ships, the Florida and the Shenandoah had driven many American merchants from the sea.

Semmes dared not linger in Singapore's harbor for fear of the Wyoming. Also, his ship's boilers were losing power, and some copper plates from the ship's bottom had dropped off. Accordingly, Semmes plotted a different return course to the Atlantic across the Bay of Bengal, to Bombay, through the Madagascar Channel, and back to Cape Town.

En route, from the last week in December through middle January, the raider burned four more merchant ships. The New England captain of one told Semmes that he was relieved to finally be captured as for three years he had had "constant visions of the Alabama, by night and by day".

The Alabama reached Cape Town on 20 March 1864. As on her outbound trip the previous year, she received a cordial welcome. She had been commemorated there by a popular song, "Here Comes the Alabama". On 25 March, the ship left Table Bay "amidst lusty cheers, and the waving of handkerchiefs" from a surrounding fleet of boats.

In his memoir, Semmes wrote that his intention, at this point, was to sail to England or France for "docking and thoroughly overhauling and repairing my ship". During the passage, the captain read newspapers that had been acquired at Cape Town. From them, he learned how badly things had gone for the South since Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg. For the first time, he realized that in all likelihood "the cruises of the Alabama were drawing to a close".

Between the Cape of Good Hope and Europe, the raider captured two more ships. The first, the Rockingham, bound for Cork with a load of guano, was used for target practice. Afterward, an inspection of the battered hulk revealed that some of the Alabama's shells had not exploded properly. After all, they were two years old. The second ship, the Tycoon, out of New York, was the last sent up in flames by the Alabama.

On 11 June, the Confederate raider made her way to Cherbourg, France. As the port facilities were government-owned, repairs to a belligerent ship required the Emperor Louis Napoleon's approval. As he was not in Paris, the delay in obtaining his permission proved fateful for the Alabama, as its presence had been telegraphed across Europe. While the Confederate ship waited, three days later, the Kearsarge, one of the three ships that had ended the Sumter's run, steamed in and took up a position outside the harbor.

Captain Semmes had few options now. If he waited, more Union gunboats would arrive. If he fought, the Alabama was in poor repair, and her shells were suspect. However, Semmes sent word to Captain Winslow of the Kearsarge that he intended to come out and fight as soon as he had replenished his coal supply. Although Semmes felt the ships were reasonably well matched, his opponent had an undisclosed advantage. Concealed within a narrow wooden housing along both sides, the Kearsarge had a layer of armor, vertically-hung chains.

At about 9:30 on Sunday morning 19 June, the Alabama steamed out to meet her opponent. The weather was good, and in the hills above town and from second story windows — wherever a view of the battle could be found — people gathered. Many had come from as far away as Paris. A French warship, the Couronne, anchored outside the harbor to assure that France's neutrality was not violated. An English yacht, the Deerhound, sailed out to get a good view of the battle.

At a distance of about a mile from the Kearsarge, the Alabama opened fire, and the Union ship replied. Semmes' official report of the battle stated that "it became necessary to fight in a circle; the two ships steaming around a common centre". They were about three quarters to a half mile apart. Semmes recorded that his shells, which exploded against the hull of the Kearsarge seemed to be doing little damage. However, the federal ship's solid and exploding shells inflicted severe damage on the Alabama, where men were killed or wounded, in various parts of the ship. After a battle of about one hour and 10 minutes, the Alabama began to sink from the large holes in her side. Semmes tried to sail her back to the harbor, but she was sinking too fast. He struck his colors.

Of the 149 men aboard the Alabama, nine were killed, 21 wounded. At least another 10 drowned or disappeared. Later examination of the Kearsarge revealed that one of the Alabama's shells that hit above her armor should have been fatal, but had failed to explode. After the battle, Raphael Semmes was rescued by the Deerhound. He eventually re-entered the Confederacy via Mexico and was later promoted to rank of Rear Admiral.

The Alabama, along with her companions, the Florida and the Shenandoah — also built in England, accounted for more than half of the approximately 300 Union ships captured by the Confederacy during the War. The value of ships burned and ransomed by the Alabama alone was more than five million dollars.

In September 1872 in Geneva, Switzerland, in response to a claim filed under the Treaty of Washington by the United States against Great Britain, arbitrators found the British government negligent in upholding its neutrality during the War, regarding the construction of the three Confederate raiders. The arbitrators assessed damages of $15,500,000 in gold.

In November 1984, a French Navy minehunter came across the wreck of the Alabama in about 200 feet of water in the English Channel off Cherbourg. More than 400 artifacts from the raider were later recovered — including tableware, the ship's bell and cannons. In July 2007, the remains of an unidentified sailor, found encrusted beneath one of the cannons, were buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama, following a funeral procession that had begun downtown at the statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes.

Ron Hunka. The Alabama: Ghost Ship of the Confederacy. History Magazine. April/May 2009.

Confederate Shipbuilding In this book, the author argues that the real grounds for the Confederacy's failure to build a successful navy were military, geographical, and political factors and not the South's lack of resources. Indeed, the position is taken that internal dissension and inter-service rivalries within the CSA's land-minded war department were a significant factor in the Confederacy's downfall. "Thorough research, especially in manuscripts, sound perspective, and confident narration make Still's work as watertight and ironclad as the C.S.S. Virginia." - The Courier.

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